A Debate about the merits of Foreigners and thier input to the Philippines economy.
I want to start a debate about foreigners and property, at the same time, i also want to start a reciprocal debate about foreigners here in UK owning property, it seems to me what is good for the goose should also be good for the gander, so let us start that great property and real estate debate.
Fred recently made a rather excellent post about a certain foreigner in the Philippines, Helmut the German, seems he finally got his fingers burned when he lost his case, after trial court and appeal to get his money back he has invested in the Philippines economy, rather alot of money as you will see if you read the post.
If the truth be known, I have always wanted to start this debate, and often spend countless hours of my time in the Philippines talking to my barkada about this very important area, I talk to accountants, lawyers and officials, that I meet during the course of my travels, and all of those ones generally agree, that the law regarding foreigners and real estate is prejudicial and unfair.
So lets take it a stage further, putting aside the arguments made by the Philippine congress that foreigners will simply buy up all the real estate thus putting the Filipinos out of the picture, therefore causing inflationary pressures and a price war.
Has anyone in the Philippines ever given thought to the plight of the many thousands of foreigners who through their Filipino citizen partners, purchase property and real estate to make for themselves a better life in the future.
Helmut was one such person, Fred told us about this in his post, when I made one about Community property, it seems even though real estate is considered community property, the court ruled that he could not get his money back, and I am not suprised by this judgement.
Let me join in with Helmut and say, I am also one of those who has done such a thing, I have through my Filipino citizen wife, purchased land, built a house and plowed just about every spare peso i could find to achieve this...so where do I stand, what rights do I have, if Helmut is anything to go by, I dont have any rights whatsoever, better then that my wife and I do not split up, I do not start womanizing and generally, behave myself in the Philippines.
So what about real estate and the plight of the foreigners, is it fair for spouses of Filipinos to be treated this way ?
And how would they feel if our government here in the United Kingdom, disallowed Filipinos from owning property, acquiring real estate, and ruled against them in the high court of appeal, if they had put any money in ?
Taking the differences in the economies of the two countries they are of course worlds apart, the Philippine congress and constitution has a good basis for not allowing foreigners to own real estate, one can understand that it might cause a price war and inflationary pressures, they might become the slaves to foreigners, and its a fair point.
But to my mind, the Constitution of the Philippines has no provision for those foreign citizens who are married to Filipino citizens, and
here it is YES IT SHOULD HAVE A PROVISION OR A CONCESSION
So lets start the debate in this area, should not a concession be forthcoming such as this.
All foreign citizens who are legally married under Philipine law should be permited to avail themselves of 1 residential property, their main residence in the Philippines, although they may not own a seperate parcel of land or other commericial properties, this should be on a lot not exceeding 500 square metres, and this should be deemed community property and should be divided equally between each party to the marriage, regardless of the outcome of such a marriage.
This concession would then redress the situation for foreigners, not withstanding that its pretty hard for foreigners to obtain banking facilities, get a phone in their house and get access to other services, I spoke to an accountant in the Philippines a very good freind of mine who told me
"Actually the Filipino mentality when it comes to foreigners is that they dont paticularly want them owning anything, and yes they do make it pretty difficult for them to get on..."
So lets look at the reverse side of the coin....and here is my viewpoint on the matter, some of you may agree with me, others may not, but thats the beauty of such a debate as this, you are all entitled to your viewpoint, but here is mine for what its worth.
Petes viewpoint.
A country such as the Philippines considers applications for permanent residency visa's from nationals of those countries that have reciprocal schemes in place, such as the United Kingdom.
For example, when you marry your Filipino citizen, she becomes your spouse, in time she may apply to have indefinate leave to remain, in time after 3 years he or she may apply to the Home Secretary to be naturalized as a British Citizen.
The Filipino citizen may as a UK Resident own real estate, they may purchase land, they may have a mortgage, take out loans, have credit cards, they are given many privilidges in our country, of which theirs does not reciprocate, to take this further, I read an article written by a certain Filipino journalist in Sun Star, who said, "We must be careful of how we treat foreigners in our country, "Filipinos abroad, are being treated badly because of the way we treat foreigners, denying them access to certain services, means our people in their countries are suffering, the object of this was Korea, but it could apply to anywhere"
So what about the permanent residency thing, the UK and Philippines have reciprocal agreements on visa's pensions, and social security, but not an agreement on real estate.
In my view, the UK and Philippines should have such an agreement in place, so lets debate, why should British Citizen spouses be denied the privilidge of owning a house they pay for, and would wish to live in, most Filipina's agree that the money for such purchases tends to be inward investment, this generally means that the money to buy such a property comes from outside the country, so why should they then be denied access to property rights even under the Family code, it seems to me that there is 1 rule for the Filipino and another for everyone else who is a foreigner.
And there is little point of anyone reading this coming back to me and saying "If you dont like it, you should not have married a Filipino, or my other favourite is this one
"if you dont like it you should not have bought a house there"
Whilst some of the above may have merit, it doesnt make the current situation fair, thats he same as if I had met an Eskimo and then found that I am not allowed to build an igloo...because I am barred from owning snow....because I am not an Eskimo.
My wife and I often talk about this very touch subject, and she knows my views, we laugh about it all the time, but there is a serious side to this debate.
Should the United Kingdom government provide within our laws a reciprocal provision that those countries whose constitution prohibits foreigners from owning a share of real estate, will also prohibit foreigners from those countries from owning real estate.
IN MY VIEW IT SHOULD - !
Dont get me wrong those who read this, I love my wife very much, i want the best for her, she has that privilidge here, she owns real estate, she has a 50 per cent share in my home, ( I should add a 50 per cent share in my 50 per cent share, since my ex wife has the other 50 per cent...so she has 25 per cent..sorry hahahaha) , our country conveys that on foreigners, it doesnt matter what your skin colour is, what place you call home, what your religion is, everyone regardless of where you were born, has that same right to own a little parcel of this great land, for as much as we moan, complain and criticize this country of ours,
NO ONE IS REALLY A FOREIGNER - THIS UK IS EVERYONES UK !
Now I have shown my hand of cards, you all know where I stand, lets debate the issue, who feels my points are valid, who does not agree with me...the floor is yours !
